Contents

[at Don Tommasino's funeral] Goodbye, my old friend. You could have lived a little longer; I could be closer to my dream. You were so loved, Don Tommasino. Why was I so feared, and you so loved? What was it? I was no less honorable. I wanted to do good. What betrayed me? Was it my mind? My heart? Why do I condemn myself so? I swear on the lives of my children: Give me a chance to redeem myself, and I will sin no more.

Michael Corleone: I'm just gonna go into the kitchen and listen to some Tony Bennett records.

[Michael's son Anthony has refused to join the "family business"]

Michael Corleone: You could have helped me, Kay. You could have helped me to convince him.

Kay Adams-Corleone: Convince him of what?

Michael Corleone: He throws his life away. He throws greatness away!

Kay Adams-Corleone: This is greatness? You know, Michael, now that you're so respectable I think you're more dangerous than you ever were. In fact, I preferred you when you were just a common Mafia hood.

Michael Corleone: Alright, can we talk now? Common sense?

Kay Adams-Corleone: Alright. Tony knows you killed Fredo.

Michael Corleone: [angry] Why did you come here?

Kay Adams-Corleone: I came here to protect my son. I didn't come here to see you shielded by your church. I thought that was a shameful ceremony.

Michael Corleone: I did what I could to protect you from the horrors of the world.

Kay Adams-Corleone: But you became my horror.

Vincent Mancini: You like to gamble? Why don't we go to Atlantic City? My town. I'll show you how to gamble.

Grace Hamilton: Yeah, but I like to win. How will I know what numbers to pick?

Vincent Mancini: Do I look like a guy who's gonna lose?

Michael Corleone: You all know Joey Zasa. He is, I admit, an important man. His picture is on the cover of the New York Times Magazine. He gets the Esquire Magazine award for the best dressed gangster. [the assembled Dons laugh] The newspapers praise him because he hires the blacks into his family, which shows he has a good heart. Who knows, maybe someday he will make all of you popular.

Joey Zasa: It's true, I make more of a bella figura. That is my nature. But I also want to make a move into legitimate enterprises. I also want a pin from the Pope. Sure, I take the blacks and the Spanish into my family, because that's America.

Michael Corleone: And you guarantee that they don't deal the drugs in those neighborhoods?

Joey Zasa: [angry] No! I say to all of you that I have been treated this day with no respect! I've made you all money. And I asked for little. Good. You won't give, I'll take! As for Don Corleone, he has made it very clear today that he is my enemy! You must choose between us.

Michael Corleone: Joe Zasa would never pull something like this without backing. He doesn't have the wit for that helicopter attack. He doesn't even have the ambition to wipe out the whole Commission. Certainly not the balls.

Vincent Mancini: I say we hit back and take Zasa out!

Michael Corleone: [leaning to Vincent] Never let anyone know what you're thinking. [to Vincent, Connie and Neri] All right, let's get a ... let's get a message to Joey Zasa. I respect what he's done. The new overthrows the old, it's natural.

Vincent Mancini: How can you do business with this guy?

Michael Corleone: I'm a businessman, first and foremost. I want no conflict with anyone.

Vincent Mancini: Well, you can tell him from me that he can live or he can die.

Michael Corleone: Vincent, WILL YOU SHUT UP?!

Don Altobello: Treachery is everywhere.

Michael Corleone: You still have your fingers on the strings, even now.

Vincent Mancini: [in a helicopter] I'd like to take Joey Zasa up in one of these and drop him.

Michael Corleone: Joey Zasa is nothing. He's a small-time enforcer. He bluffs, he threatens, but nothing. You can see him coming a mile away.

Cardinal Lamberto: Your sins are terrible, and it is just that you suffer. Your life could be redeemed, but I know you do not believe that. You will not change. [crosses to Michael]In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

Michael Corleone: I want you to forgive me.

Kay Adams-Corleone: For what?

Michael Corleone: For everything.

Kay Adams-Corleone: Like God, huh?

Michael Corleone: I need something a little closer. You could never understand, back in those days. I loved my father. I swore I would never be a man like him, but I loved him, and he was in danger. What could I do? Then, later, you were in danger, our children were in danger. What could I do? You were all I loved and valued in the world, and now I'm losing you — I've lost you anyway, and it was all for nothing, so... You have to understand, I had a whole different destiny planned. Alright, I'll stop.